The book promises “ a great fraud has been perpetrated on young Grace and her sister, and they are the secret recipients of a most unusual legacy-if only they can find the means to claim it. Worried about how things will end for the Parkes sisters? Never fear. Grace also has standards she’d rather deal with the daily uncertainty of the Seven Dials than the guaranteed food and shelter of the training center, because the training center came with a man who felt he was entitled to the young girls. Grace does not deny how dire their situation gets, but she has determination and drive. Feeling down? Use bits of scrap newspapers as inspiration to weave stories to entertain your sister. No money for rent? Figure out what can be pawned. Abused in the workhouse? Leave, find a place to live, find a way to make money. Each roadblock is one that Grace matter-of-factly confronts. No matter what happens to them, no matter what possessions they pawn or lose, no matter the trials and tribulations that are heaped upon them, their bond remains strong. Stolen shoes and stolen identities.īut it’s NOT doom and gloom! It’s the opposite of doom and gloom! The bond between Grace and Lily is loving and kind. The Good: Writing the plot part of Fallen Grace was challenging, because it sounded so doom and gloom! Poverty and orphans and a stillborn child. Chance encounters will lead to a future different than anything Grace ever dreamed. Neither, at first, seems very significant. Things are happening, though, things about which Grace and Lily are unaware. While at Brookwood Cemetery to bury the child, Grace has two chance encounters.

Another harsh blow is delivered when Grace delivers a stillborn child. The bond between the sisters is strong and loving, even though Grace, the younger sister at 15, has to take care of the older Lily.

Despite it all - despite the poverty, the hunger, the work - Grace and Lily have each other.

Grace and Lily Parkes, two teenaged orphans, have little and keep losing the little they have.

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper